The Godfather captivated audiences by offering what seemed to be an insider's view of Mafia life. Puzo chose not to disrupt the story's flow with exhaustive details of the everyday criminal acts that truly sustain organized crime. Instead, he concentrated on a series of intense and violent incidents during a prolonged gang war—exactly the kind of Mafia activity that attracts major media coverage. Puzo was taken aback that readers didn't immediately recognize the irony in his depiction of Don Corleone and his realm. Despite Puzo's occasional ironic commentary and the clear criminal culpability of the main characters, these aspects don't significantly lessen the reader's emotional attachment to the Corleone family's saga. Essentially, the book is a romance masquerading as documentary fiction.